There was a time when I didn't talkI'd look away or I'd shrug it offTune it out or turn it offOr say something short and soft

Out of school I took a j-o-bMakin' buttons in a factoryThinkin' what has life got in for meAnd I didn't wanna know

In a city full of double dealsMy boss would yawn and roll back on his heelsAs if anyone could cop a feelof lady luck

I was made with my brother BillDrinking Moskie Moons on top of Laurel HillFunny now I'd cheek a poison pillto sober up

And no two-bit claim that I'm all rightIs gonna turn it around and make it rightSo I'm reaching in my pocket for a lightAnd I'm standing on the corner on a Saturday night

I've seen pigeons flap their filthy wingsto a freezing sunset in the westRain shit down from their haunted perchAbove the bells of St. Someone's churchThe Sexton drinks and dreams in bedOne eye in a line of lightStartled by a ghost he screamsHis dead wife's name into the night

Which echoes down a cobbled hallBounces off a gray stone floorFired down a line of stairsWhere it's silenced by a doorBeyond which I am leaning, leaning,Watching cars and dreamingAs steam rose round my bodyLike my soul up to the stars

I guess the devil's had his way with the townNow that Willie is in the groundAnd I guess the devil made me thisWhen he gave me knowin' I can't resistI got the bill todayWrote back, I moved awayThey called me up to sayThey know that I'm still here

On the fifth day of the fifth monthAt five o'clock in the dawnI rolled myself in a t-o-pAnd jumped out on Highway OneWith a 400 engine hot as a cremation coffinAnd a tailgate bangin like an airplane wingI was rollin down the highway, doin it my waywhistlin' someday and singin this song